dīng

to watch attentively

to fix one's attention on; to stare at; to gaze at

eye (目) + nail (丁) = to fix your gaze like a nail driven in

目 anchors the meaning in sight and focused vision. 丁 contributes the sound dīng and doesn't add semantic weight here.

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A nailPhonetic
EyeSemantic

他一直着窗外,不知道在想什么。

tā yī zhí dīng zhe chuāng wài,bù zhī dào zài xiǎng shén me。

He kept staring out the window, not knowing what he was thinking about.

老师着那个说话的学生,教室里一下子安静了。

lǎo shī dīng zhe nà ge shuō huà de xué sheng,jiào shì lǐ yī xià zi ān jìng le。

The teacher fixed her gaze on the student who was talking, and the classroom went quiet all at once.

Words with 盯

盯住

dīng zhù

to watch sb closely

盯市

dīng shì

mark to market (accounting)

盯梢

dīng shāo

to follow sb

盯牢

dīng láo

to gaze intently at

盯紧

dīng jǐn

to keep an eye on

盯视

dīng shì

to stare fixedly

紧盯

jǐn dīng

to gaze

紧迫盯人

jǐn pò dīng rén

to keep a close eye on sb (idiom)

More characters with 目